5 ways to improve remote team communication

The Future of work is here. People choose to work from home remotely and that’s a new reality. Businesses should be prepared for the new working environments and establish new working rules. In this kind of world, remote work makes communication a little bit challenging for all companies and teams and they try their best to make it work. 

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Ineffective meetings and the lack of communication bring misconceptions and reduce productivity. And great communication creates successful teams and projects. Every team searches for different strategies and tools to make seamless information flow, in order to achieve all project goals.

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In this blog, we’ll elaborate on the topic of why is communication so important and how to make your project thrive with great team collaboration.

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Why communication is so important for remote teams?

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It’s proven that communication is one of the most important drivers for organizational and team health. Most of the teams struggle with working remotely, but there’re thousand of ways to improve communication and keep everyone up-to-date. 

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But let’s first see why communication is so important even in remote teams:

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Increased productivity and profitability

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The more team members communicate the more beneficial the communication will be. They will understand each other better and faster time after time which will bring them to the main goals.

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The information flow will become even more seamless and they’ll become more agile and flexible. All obstacles will be noticed on time, and every challenge easily solved. Even one engaged employee will lead the team to the aimed way of communication. I mean every individual engagement will improve team engagement. 

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Successful projects and teams

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All managers when building teams and assigning their tasks, should take care of the organization within a team. It’s very important to the mindset of all those people, about how they solve the problems and organize the entire work. They should make sure that every opinion is appreciated by another member.

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This kind of project where every idea is welcome and everyone is a good listener will result in nothing more than success.

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Shared knowledge and innovation

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Seamless communication brings an increased flow of knowledge between team members. It’s much easier to solve problems and achieve any goal when everyone comes up with a relevant solution to a certain problem and shares it with others. 

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When we already see all the benefits of communication, successful project, sharable knowledge, and achieving goals, let’s see how can we improve remote team communication:

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Utilize the best tools

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When working remotely the tools are like a foundation for every remote team. Without all those tools and apps it would be almost impossible to communicate from different locations and different time zones. 

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All tools provide platforms for project management, and sharing files, and videos in order to improve collaboration within a team or organization. They boost productivity and make everyone more involved in all projects.

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Choosing the right tools depends a lot on:

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• Team size
• Your budget
• The industry
• Team distribution

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Software like Chanl makes the entire work easier by bringing everyone on the same page. There’s a channel for the whole team where everyone can share necessary files, new ideas, opinions, and videos, and leave comments. The engagement takes another level at this point of increasing communication.

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Set clear guidelines for communication

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Effective remote team communication requires clear guidelines. Outline how you want your team to communicate with each other and third teams and here you go with clear rules and purposeful communication. 

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What do the communication guidelines cover? It covers what tools will your team use for meetings, or organizing and assigning tasks. Are you going to use Zoom or Google Meet, Trello, or Asana? Where would you like to communicate and collaborate mostly?

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Your team communication plan can look really different from other companies or teams, but you should pay attention to which kind of tools are most relevant and helpful for your kind of work. It also creates your team image and values. 

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Increase asynchronous work and communication

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Nowadays, video calls replaced in-person meetings. But jumping from one meeting to another one leads people to Zoom fatigue. And it kills productivity and all effectiveness. 

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Instead of trying to schedule synchronous meetings, the message can be clearly delivered even with asynchronous working styles. Remember, working remotely includes people working from different locations and time zones, and sometimes they’re not available to attend the meeting at a certain time. A synchronous working style makes collaboration between people with different schedules harder. 

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Asynchronous work takes that pressure off when the team members need to answer instantly and be available 24/7. 

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Chanl enables your team to communicate with asynchronous videos. You can use the app for sharing async videos as feedback for a specific task, or to announce all the points that’ll be discussed in the next meeting. The others are able to leave comments, and share videos with their own ideas or opinions. 

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Improve communication with effective meeting

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Working remotely is excellent, but people may get too exhausted to do all the tasks after the meeting. Yes, meetings are great for tracking the project and giving feedback, but sometimes they’re really time-consuming and even unnecessary. 

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Instead of scheduling a meeting every day, and taking people’s precious time, if possible, try to convert your meeting to an email. They would love that. Moreover, if the meeting still needs to happen, reduce its time and make it more effective. 

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Tools like Chanl can help you to collaborate on a meeting agenda. A single place where everyone can take notes in real-time about the key discussion for the next meeting. You can take already-made agenda templates, or make one on your own. 

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In this way, you’ll discuss only the key points that need to be mentioned. 

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Regular open conversations

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Imagine these open conversations as a discussion that happens in the office. But instead of being in the office and chipping in to offer new ideas and suggestions, you jump on Slack and talk to your colleagues. 

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This kind of discussion on different tools will improve remote team communication and it’s really helpful for bringing decisions and keeping everyone up-to-date.

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The team will collaborate better and will trust each other more. Better communication with fewer meetings, sounds great, doesn’t it?

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Summary

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Improving communication in a remote team is not an easy job, but it’s still possible. More meetings don’t mean better communication. Find a better way to communicate with your team even without video calls. 

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Find your best and favorite tools to share files, videos, ideas, and everything you need to get the job done. Bring everyone on the same page and boost collaboration within a team. All problems can be solved when everyone communicates with each other. Let all members be included in the process with their own opinions. 

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